The Red Woman
This article is about the episode, for the red priestess see Melisandre. "The Red Woman" is the first episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones. It is the fifty-first episode of the series overall. It premiered on April 24, 2016. It was written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and directed by Jeremy Podeswa. Plot At Castle Black, Thorne defends his treason while Edd and Ser Davos defend Jon Snow's body along with Melisandre and few other Black watch guards themselves. Sansa and Theon race the cold and the hounds, but helped by Brienne of Tarth. In Dorne, Ellaria Sand successfully coup against Doran Martell, and kills him and his son. Cerci and Jamie Lannister swears to take revenge on everyone. Melisandre turns out to be a VERY VERY OLD LADY. Summary In the North poon In Braavos In Meereen In the Dothraki Sea In Dorne In King's Landing At The Wall Appearances First * Maester Wolkan * Khal Moro * Maester Caleotte Deaths * Areo Hotah * Prince Doran Martell * Maester Caleotte * Prince Trystane Martell Production Cast Starring *Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister *Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister *Lena Headey as Queen Mother Cersei Lannister *Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen *Kit Harington as Jon Snow (corpse) *Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth *Carice van Houten as Lady Melisandre *Natalie Dormer as Queen Margaery Tyrell *Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand *Sophie Turner as Princess Sansa Stark *Maisie Williams as Arya Stark *Conleth Hill as Varys *Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy *Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth *Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow *Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis *Michael McElhatton as Lord Roose Bolton *Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton *Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont Guest Starring *Owen Teale as Ser Alliser Thorne *Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett *Alexander Siddig as Prince Doran Martell *DeObia Oparei as Areo Hotah *Faye Marsay as The Waif *Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne *Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand *Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand *Jessica Henwick as Nymeria Sand *Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella *Toby Sebastian as Trystane Martell *Brenock O'Connor as Olly *Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane *Charlotte Hope as Myranda *Joe Naufahu as Khal Moro *Chuku Modu as Ahko *Staz Nair as Qhono *Rubi Ali as a Khal Moro's wife *Fola Evans-Akingbola as a Khal Moro's wife *Gerald Lepkowski as a Red Priest *Richard Rycroft as Maester Wolkan *Diogo Sales as a Dothraki bloodrider *Junade Khan as a Dothraki bloodrider *Sara Dylan as handmaiden *Brian Fortune as First Builder Othell Yarwyck *Michael Condron as First Steward Bowen Marsh *Steve Cash *Robert Fawsitt *Michael Hayes *Tony Flynn *Andrew Bryan as a Bolton officer *Tristan Heanue as a Bolton soldier *Sabina Arthur as a Meereenese homeless mother *Colin Azzopardi Cast notes *19 of 29 starring cast members appear in this episode. *Starring cast members Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish), Diana Rigg (Olenna Tyrell), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark), Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane), Hannah Murray (Gilly), and Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H'ghar) are not credited and do not appear in this episode. Notes *The episode's title apparently refers to Melisandre of Asshai, also known as the Red Woman. *The journey to Oldtown subplot (involving Samwell and Gilly) and Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish do not appear in this episode. Subplot which do not appear in this episode but which are confirmed to reappear later in the season are Bran Stark and his storyline, House Greyjoy (as a faction, not including Theon), and the Tully/Frey subplot. House Tyrell as a broader political faction does not appear, though Margaery Tyrell herself does in a prison cell (Loras doesn't appear either despite also being imprisoned, though it is a plot point that her captors are using her desire to know what happened to him as leverage over her). *Ramsay's reaction to Myranda's death is very uncharacteristic: in the books he never cared about his lackeys known as the "Bastard's Boys", and was capable of killing them himself (as he did to Luton). If someone else murdered them (Yellow Dick, "Little" Walder Frey) - his reaction is rage, not sorrow, as if it was a personal insult. In fact, Ramsay has never expressed any emotion that resembles sorrow in general. *As Benioff points out in the "Inside the Episode" featurette, the novels already gave some hints that Melisandre is actually far older than she seems, and is using a magical "glamor" to project an outward image of youth. It was already a major theory circulating among book readers for some time, given Melisandre's thought to herself that she has been practicing her magical arts "for years beyond count", and Davos's description that her appearance is so perfect as to seem unnatural and artificial: her proportions a little too perfect, her skin so flawless that is has no blemishes whatsoever, her hair so red it is the color of red copper (not a natural human red hair color). In the fifth novel, Melisandre reveals that she outright has the power to project glamors on other people, when she projects the image that the Lord of Bones is actually Mance Rayder, and has him burned at the stake in his place (though the showrunners have stated Mance simply dies in the TV version). Melisandre directly explains to Jon that her glamors only affect mental appearances and perceptions in other people's minds - she doesn't actually "shape-shift" the way that the Faceless Men do. Moreover, a point is made that Melisandre never takes her elaborate necklace off in the novels, which contains a red jewel that glows when she uses her powers. ** ".]]An inconsistency in the TV series is that when Melisandre is taking a bath in Season 4 episode 7 "Mockingbird", she doesn't have her necklace on at all. In-universe it's possible that she can briefly take it off for certain periods of time (in this episode, she wanted to see her true form in the mirror), though out-of-universe it's possible that getting the prop necklace wet might damage it. Also, Melisandre has been heavily using her magical powers of prophecy lately trying to see the future through the flames, so her glamor might be under a heavier strain. **In the Inside the Episode featurette, Benioff said that early in the TV series, George R.R. Martin told them that Melisandre is actually several centuries old. Martin also told the actress this so should would know to play Melisandre as a much older personality. *The episode doesn't clearly explain how Theon Greyjoy and Sansa Stark survived the jump from the walls of Winterfell. In the books - in which Ramsay's bride was Sansa's best friend Jeyne Poole - they just landed in one of the large snowdrifts which was starting to pile up against the castle walls. Jeyne still cracked a few ribs, but otherwise the snow broke their fall. Despite some minor injuries they didn't have a problem outrunning Bolton scouts, because a blizzard had just settled over the castle which masked their escape. It is unknown how to reconcile this with how in the TV version, Melisandre's blood sacrifice of Shireen actually lifted the blizzard and the snow was visibly melting - though it does take time for very large 20 foot high snowdrifts to melt completely. *In order to play Arya Stark as blind, actress Maisie Williams actually wears large 16 millimeter contacts that she cannot see through - she was never given the option to just produce the cloudy effect in her eyes with CGI, she was told to wear the contacts from the start. The true-blindness contacts, however, are only used in dialogue-heavy scenes when she is standing relatively still: Williams explained that for the stick-fighting scenes with the Waif, she had to switch to using slightly modified contact lenses with small pinpricks in the center, so she could actually see - otherwise there was concern that she might hurt herself or others with the stick if a move went wrong in the performance. The pinprick-contacts are only used briefly when she's moving around and the camera isn't focused on her face, so they aren't really visible to the viewer - she then switches back to using the full-blindness contacts for other closeups. *Tyrion Lannister once again displays, as he did in the Season 4 finale, that he knows how to speak High Valyrian, albeit quite badly. Rather, High Valyrian is essentially a fantasy analogue of Latin in the Middle Ages - the language of a once mighty but now fallen empire, which is now the prestige language of learned men across the world. In everyday use, High Valyrian evolved and diversified into the Low Valyrian languages - much as Latin evolved and diverged into Spanish, Italian, French, etc. There seem to be roughly ten major varieties of Low Valyrian, described as not so much separate "dialects" anymore but well on their way to being separate languages. In the books, Tyrion knows how to speak Braavosi Low Valyrian, a "smattering" of Myrish Low Valyrian, and a few phrases from Tyroshi Low Valyrian, but the Ghiscari Low Valyrian spoken in Slaver's Bay is quite different, but as most commoners in Slaver's Bay at least understand High Valyrian, the homeless mother might have been expected to understand him, if his Valyrian were not terrible. Varys, in contrast, can speak High Valyrian much more fluently - given that as he explained in Season 4, he was born a slave in Lys and thus Low Valyrian was his natural tongue - or rather, he said he was part of a troupe of actors who moved around between the different cities, until he was castrated and left for dead in Myr, where he spent some years as a pickpocket (note that in this episode he mentions he was once a thief). **Varys says that "Mhysa" is the "Valyrian" word for mother. Strictly speaking this is true: it is actually the Old Ghiscari word for "mother", and that is now a dead language, but it influenced the Ghiscari Low Valyrian that replaced it, which contains numerous loanwords from it. "Mhysa" is thus a "Valyrian" word much in the same way that "rodeo" is an English word (when "rodeo" is really a direct loanword from Spanish). **For the third time now, the incongruent graffiti has appeared in Meereen which is written in the Common Tongue of Westeros, despite the fact that everyone there speaks Ghiscari Low Valyrian (and even using the writing system of Westeros - in the novels, Valyrian uses a system of glyphs). In-universe it is possible that some local slaves simply speak the Common Tongue, though out-of-universe it was apparently just so the audience can read it. For that matter, the graffiti now switches between using both Valyrian and Common Tongue words: "Mhysa is a master" instead of perhaps "Mother is a master", etc. *When Daenerys Targaryen says she will never have any children, "until the sun rises in the west and sets in the east", she is quoting what Mirri Maz Duur told her back in the Season 1 finale after she rendered Khal Drogo catatonic, and poisoned Daenerys's pregnancy with spells in such a way that her son Rhaego was stillborn and horrifically deformed. The Season 1 finale itself actually omitted the further explanation from the novels that Mirri didn't just kill Daenerys's current child, but actually rendered her sterile - meaning that the Targaryen dynasty will die with her. Daenerys's lines in this episode act as if Mirri gave the full statement from the novels - though it is possible that Daenerys just figured this out on her own (she stops flowering for years afterwards, which convinces her that Mirri's words weren't an idle threat but her reproductive organs have in fact been severely damaged). * "...]] ".]]This episode continues the haphazard application of the title "King of the Andals and the First Men" used for the king who sits on the Iron Throne. In the novels, the full title is "King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men" - the three main ethnic groups of Westeros. The TV series changed this to just "King of the Andals and the First Men" in earlier seasons - Eddard Stark prominently states it when he executes the deserter at the beginning of the first episode. It is possible that they left out "of the Rhoynar" because the Dornish were not going to be introduced until Season 4, and the production team didn't want to deluge the audience with extraneous information. In Season 4 itself, however, the TV series continued to omit "of the Rhoynar", even in Oberyn Martell's presence at Tommen's coronation in "First of His Name". When Missandei formally introduces Daenerys Targaryen in episode 4.10 "The Children", however, she uses the full title of the novels, including "of the Rhoynar" - the first time it was used in the TV series. This was even more unusual, given that only four episodes previously in episode 4.6 "The Laws of Gods and Men", Missandei introduced Daenerys in the throne room (the same location and same characters) using the shortened title that excluded "of the Rhoynar". *''Game of Thrones Wiki'' managed to reach out to George R.R. Martin asking about this at the time, and he confirmed that the title was officially changed in the TV continuity to exclude the "of the Rhoynar" part - apparently it was formally decided at a sit-down writer's meeting of some kind. Martin said: :::"It is true that the Targaryen succession on the series is different than the one in the novels; most notably, the Mad King's father Jaehaerys II was dropped, as was established way back in season one. In much the same way as the Rhoynar have been dropped from the royal titles, "King of Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men," etc."http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/12392 *Season 5, however, switched back to consistently using only the format "King of the Andals and the First Men" - to the point that the use of the phrase "of the Rhoynar" in the Season 4 finale was assumed to just be a single isolated script error. **Now, in the Season 6 premiere, the TV series has once again flipped back to using the full title from the novels, "Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men". At this point it is unknown what the actual title is even supposed to be in the TV continuity. Mutiny at Castle Black - books versus TV series *This episode confirms that in the TV continuity, the victory of the Boltons over Stannis had nothing to do with the motivations for the mutiny against Jon Snow: it is presented as purely about the wildlings. No attempt is made to overtly explain why Thorne would have let the wildlings through the Wall in the first place if only to kill Jon for it later, when he simply could have barred the gate to them. In the episode itself, it's said that about 40 of the 50 men remaining in the garrison are loyal to Thorne at this point, and it is not presented as if he feared rebuke at the time if he didn't open the gate. **In the "Inside the Episode" featurette immediately following the episode, showrunners Benioff and Weiss outright give contradictory explanations for what Thorne's motivations were. Weiss begins by saying that Thorne has hated Jon since Season 1, the mutiny was a naked "power grab", and was made entirely for selfish reasons due to the older officers' grudge against the wildlings. Immediately following this the camera cuts to Benioff, who gives the explanation that the mutiny was actually like the assassination of Julius Caesar, explicitly in the sense that everyone who stabbed Jon did it for selfless reasons, Thorne wasn't making a power grab, he was doing what he honestly felt was best to save the Night's Watch. For more information see the sub-article "The Red Woman/Mutiny at Castle Black" Dorne The TV series has drastically altered the Dorne subplot of House Martell, and drastically altered it even more in this episode: neither Doran Martell, Trystane Martell, nor Areo Hotah have died in the novels. In the books, after Oberyn Martell is killed, his daughters the Sand Snakes beg Prince Doran to allow them to take vengeance on the Lannisters (Obara suggests open war, the others targeted assassinations), but Doran refuses all of it. Moreover, Doran's eldest child and heir, his daughter Arianne Martell, sides with the Sand Snakes (under Dornish law women have equal inheritance rights - though the live-action TV episodes have never mentioned this). After Doran refuses them, Arianne plots with the Sand Snakes to actually crown Myrcella as a rival monarch to her brother Tommen - under the nominal pretext that under Donrish gender-blind inheritance law, she is ahead of her brother in line of succession. Ellaria Sand is actually the strongest opponent of going to war against the Lannisters – fearful that the cycle of revenge will never end: they will avenge Oberyn, but then the Lannisters will avenge their dead, and ultimately years from now her younger daughters who are little more than 5 years old will eventually get killed as well. Two major factors affected the Dorne storyline when it began in Season 5: *The writers explained in the Blu-ray commentary that for several years into the TV show, Benioff and Weiss never thought that the subplot in Dorne itself would ever appear, because it doesn’t involve any previously established major cast members. They did know Oberyn and Ellaria would appear in Season 4, but not that the narrative would ever go to Dorne. Belatedly, Bryan Cogman suggested that they invent the detail that Jaime and Bronn would be sent to Dorne in Season 5 to directly confront the Martells – thus the Dorne subplot wasn’t planned out several years in advance as other subplot were. *It was also explained in the Blu-ray commentary that after it was decided to actually take the narrative to Dorne, they greatly expanded Ellaria Sand’s role from what it had been in Season 4 – specifically because they enjoyed Indira Varma’s performance. Thus, all of the drastic changes to Ellaria and the Dorne subplot as a whole were not really developed until after Season 4 was produced, as opposed to being carefully planned out years in advance. In the novels, after Arianne’s attempt to crown Myrcella ends in failure, she is imprisoned by her father. When he later comes to visit her, Doran finally explains that all of his speeches about how Dorne must have peace at any cost were just an act – he has been plotting revenge against the Lannisters for nearly 20 years, he was simply very careful and patient about it, waiting for all of the pieces to come together. It is also revealed that he was a secret Targaryen loyalist the entire time, and is planning for Dorne to openly rise up to join Daenerys if and when she returns to Westeros. Arianne and the Sand Snakes reconcile with Doran now that they know the real plan. In the TV version, instead of Ellaria arguing for peace, her role was somewhat combined with Arianne’s as the one pushing for revenge in Season 4 – the exact opposite of her actions in the novels. Doran’s eldest two children, Arianne and Quentyn, were never even introduced. Ultimately, Doran’s speeches about preserving peace at any cost were apparently meant at face value in the TV version – to the point that Ellaria kills him for not taking any more aggressive action. The Sand Snakes also have no need to kill Doran’s son Trystane in the novels because they realize that Doran was on their side the entire time. Trystane’s death in the series also raises other logical questions. Trystane left on the same ship Jaime and Myrcella did – which apparently stayed in the harbor at King’s Landing, given that Trystane is seen painting funeral stones for Myrcella in his cabin. Obara and Nymeria didn’t go on the ship with them – they were shown waiting on the shore as the ship departed. It is possible that they secretly got on the next boat to leave the port and were thus only an hour or two behind Trystane's ship the entire time, then upon arriving in King’s Landing’s harbor snuck onto Trystane's boat to kill him. Moreover, if Ellaria knew that word of Myrcella's death would eventually come out, and that her instant reaction would be to kill Doran when he found out, why did she wait for him to receive a letter from his maester informing him about it, when she could have just assassinated him at a sooner and more convenient opportunity? Areo Hotah's death makes no sense too: in the books, he is always on his guard when the Sand Snakes or anyone else are within the vicinity of Doran. He would not act so sloppily, allowing anyone to take him down so easily. With Doran dead and none of his other children established as existing in the TV show, House Martell is legally extinct. Ellaria cannot make any claim to rule because she was only Oberyn's paramour, not even his legal wife, and even if she as his wife she has no blood claim to House Martell. Oberyn's eldest daughter is Obara Sand - but by definition, all of the Sand Snakes are bastards and thus cannot lawfully inherit any of House Martell's lands and titles. Catching up with the books Though Season 6 has been widely described as the point when the TV series surpasses the novels, this is not exactly true, as storylines have been adapted at an uneven pace. The showrunners always said they felt they were adapting the story as a whole, not neatly matching up the endings of each book to each season. Indeed, Tyrion surpassed his current book material already by meeting Daenerys at the end of Season 5 - which was on the verge of happening at the end of the current, fifth novel. Broadly, preview chapters released for the as-yet unpublished sixth novel can be counted as "released" material. The point still stands that several of the storylines for some of the most central characters have now surpassed the novels - Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Tyrion Lannister - but many other subplots have not. Characters and subplots that have caught up with their current material from the novels: *Daenerys Targaryen and Meereen, including Tyrion Lannister *Jon Snow and the Night's Watch *Roose Bolton and Ramsay Bolton *Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish **Sansa Stark's storyline was merged with Jeyne Poole's from the fifth novel, who is forced to marry Ramsay; her Vale storylines have now been diverted while she has reached the end of Jeyne Poole's material from the most recent novel. *Theon Greyjoy, except for his experiences after escaping Winterfell (in a preview chapter from book six) *Stannis Baratheon and Melisandre **Davos Seaworth was involved in other subplots in the North which were cut, but which may now have been merged with other subplots. Characters and subplots that have not yet caught up with the books: *Arya Stark - Arya goes blind at the end of the fourth novel, in which her storyline was heavily focused on. Her storyline is revisted in book five, in which she has two full chapters. Moreover, an Arya preview chapter from book six was released in which she kills Raff the Sweetling (condensed to be Meryn Trant in the TV series). The majority of the chapter, however, involves a lengthy scene at a stage play in Braavos, which is confirmed to appear later in Season 6. Thus Arya still has a considerable amount of material from the novels which have not yet been adapted. *Bran Stark, Hodor, and Meera Reed - Bran's storyline had one chapter left in book five after he met the Three-eyed raven, in which he begins his training in Greensight and experiences several vivid visions of the past, including his father Eddard Stark in his youth. **Season 6 is apparently going to stretch out this one Bran chapter for some time in Season 6, using it as a framing device to show important flashback scenes - at least some of which were actually had by other characters earlier in the novels, recounted through vivid narration: in the first novel, Eddard himself mentally recalled his final confrontation at the end of Robert's Rebellion with the Targaryen Kingsguard in the showdown at the Tower of Joy - Season 6 will present this as a vision of the past that Bran experiences. *Much of the Dorne subplot was extremely condensed in Season 5, to the point that Doran Martell only briefly appeared in Season 5, and many other members of House Martell didn't appear and were thought to have been adapted out (the TV series did state that there are eight Sand Snakes - there are four adult ones, and the fourth gets involved in other storylines). Nor did it include Doran's daughter and heir Arianne Martell, who has apparently been omitted from the TV continuity entirely. Casting descriptions and trailers confirm that substantial scenes will take place with the Martells again, some of them covering as-yet unadapted material from the novels. *The King's Landing subplots are a mixed case, in that after Cersei's Walk of atonement only one more chapter is set in King's Landing; however, it is an extensive scene in which her uncle Kevan Lannister and the Small Council discuss large-scale events across Westeros. The TV series is apparently combining and moving around some of this, and extending elements of the chapter across Season 6: at the same time, Cersei's ongoing confrontation with the Faith Militant (seen in trailers) will certainly surpass the events of the last chapter focusing on the Small Council. **The Faith Militant itself and the confrontation with them to have Margaery released has fully caught up with the novels, and trailers for Season 6 show scenes which confirm that she will quickly move into unadapted material in Season 6. **Loras Tyrell wasn't imprisoned by the Faith Militant in the novels; indeed he had a rather prominent new subplot: given that the Tyrells' homeland in the Reach is on the west coast of the continent, it is under threat from the renewed ironborn attacks, and Loras has to command their forces to deal with it. This storyline sees Loras return to the forefront, as he was somewhat in the background from the third novel onward after Renly died. It is unclear if this subplot will be worked back into Season 6 or be omitted entirely. *''Elements'' from the Slaver's Bay storyline were pushed back from prior novels, dealing with both internal politics within Meereen and a looming confrontation with Yunkai from without. The Yunkish diplomat Razdal mo Eraz is set to return in Season 6, organizing the slaver powers and their allies, while Daenerys's advisors left in Meereen try to deal with the mounting crisis. In the novels, these chapters after Daenerys's disappearance are told from Barristan Selmy's perspective, but with his death in the TV series, parts of them may have transferred to Tyrion. Tyrion's storyline as he was heading east to Meereen in book five also introduced a new subplot involving a major political shakeup in the Free Cities, but this was cut completely from from Tyrion's storyline in Season 5. After he leaves for Meereen it subsequently intersects with several other subplots (not Arya's). This Free Cities subplot will probably be cut entirely from the TV series. Gallery The Red Woman 01.jpg The Red Woman 02.jpg The Red Woman 03.jpg The Red Woman 04.jpg The Red Woman 05.jpg The Red Woman 06.jpg The Red Woman 07.jpg The Red Woman 08.jpg The Red Woman 09.jpg The Red Woman 10.jpg The Red Woman 11.jpg The Red Woman 12.jpg The Red Woman 13.jpg The Red Woman 14.jpg i.jpg Game-of-thrones-season-6-image-alfie-allen-sophie-turner.jpg Game-of-thrones-season-6-image-dothraki.jpg Game-of-thrones-season-6-image-iwan-rheon.jpg Game-of-thrones-season-6-image-lena-headey.jpg Game-of-thrones-season-6-image-maisie-williams.jpg References de:Die Rote Frau (Episode) ru:Красная женщина Category:Season 6 Category:Season 6 Episodes